zazen

Most people seem to agree with a two state solution. It does have its challenges though for example how to connect West Bank to Gaza or the concern of West Bank having a vantage point from which snipers or attacks can too easily be launched on Israel. With two neighbours with this much bad blood between each other, neither would accept to have a militarised area overlooking the other. Hypothetically would Russia accept a militarised Ukrainian state on the hills overlooking Moscow? Never. The issue then is if West Bank is de-militarised it’s not a fully sovereign state - and how will this be enforced - Israeli check points? That becomes occupation and the whole fight starts over. Muslim Arabs and Palestinians have also lived there and have a connection to the land - it’s also holy to them. Even if it weren’t holy - it’s not just to drive them out to Saudi Arabia. Their claims are just as valid as Jews. Only solution that comes to my mind is if West Bank is de-militarized with no IDF or Palestinian forces and instead has international peace keepers. Gaza should be given full sovereignty with full rights any state would have - building ports, airports etc.

This is why I wrote about how we need to be careful what words words are used as they can distort reality and mischaracterise situations. Me referring to China/Russia asserting dominance in their back yards was meant in the context of force and interventionist power plays which isn't what they do globally. All the links you shared are correct - but in my opinion the headings and conclusions wrongly characterise those facts as being imperial and colonially ambitious. Investment, influence and interaction with countries isn't colonial exploitation, imperial expansionism or militarily interventionist in the truest sense of those words. The former are voluntary whilst the latter are forced. All countries engage with the world, thats not inherently imperialistic. The Belt and Road initiative is a voluntary initiative where countries agree to cooperate on mutually beneficial projects. It doesn't involve the kind of coercion, annexation of territory, or direct political control that characterise historical empires. The US remains the world's largest economy and a dominant military power. The BRI represents an alternative model of economic engagement, but it exists alongside, not in place of US-led institutions and initiatives. No ego games involved here, I'm just trying to see things as clearly as possible. I'm not trying to create moral equivalency to justify BRICS actions - I just reject double standards, mischaracterisation and exaggeration. I even started my previous post by saying China and Russia aren't angels. Modern geopolitics is not free from power imbalances and inequities - the false equivalency actually exists when we equate the pursuit of economic and strategic interests by BRICS countries with colonialism or imperialism. If using definitions in how they are operatively used and not metaphorically - BRICS are largely not patterning after Western imperialism, colonialism or war mongering. Those are problematic regardless of who perpetrates them. Russia invading Ukraine, Hamas attacking Israel on October 7th or if China were to invade Taiwan are all wrong. It is human to condemn acts of violence, but it is wise to condemn the conditions that led to those very acts and to mitigate them. History always seems to start the very date the Western powers feel transgressed against. What is omitted is the escalatory amount of provocations that lead to the eruption of war. The other side is gaslit for being war mongering when their own military industrial complex and vested interests have been behind the scenes churning the gears of war through think tanks and propaganda. A pattern I see - is pushing someone into a corner despite them explicitly saying what their red lines are, then pointing fingers at them and using mass propaganda to paint them as the bad guy for trying to get out of that corner. A snapshot look at a situation will show who a clear aggressor is within a narrow slot of time (Hamas on October 7th and Russia invading Ukraine) but it would leave out the Birds Eye view context needed to shed light on the provocations that led to that point. While the post-WW2 international system has coincided with technological progress and economic growth, the distribution of these gains has been unequal. The neoliberal economic model often benefits transnational corporations and elites at the expense of working populations, widening wealth disparities. The West hasn't been a benevolent hegemon altruistically upholding a stable, just world order. For many in the Global South, it has meant the continuation of exploitation in different forms, with their resources extracted, economies distorted, and political sovereignty undermined to serve the interests of transnational corporations and individuals. Even within the West, the gains from globalisation have disproportionately flowed to the top while working class communities face deindustrialization and stagnant wages. None of this is to say that a multipolar world led by the likes of China and Russia would be perfect or that Western-led institutions haven't done any good. BRICS just represents a possible vision of a multipolar world free from the predations and exploitations of unilateral US hegemony. A world where nations can chart their own course without living in fear of the latest Pentagon/CIA coup or colour revolution. Something to point out about BRICS is that it isn't like its the elites of the Global South conspiring this into existence - its not that simple or binary. The concept of BRICS originated from Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs which took off in the finance world to advertise emerging markets for investment. They greased the wheels of the very system of globalised capitalism that made it possible. These transnational elites and corporations aren't loyal to any nation or flag except the dollar. They're the ones who shipped the factories overseas, who stashed capital in offshore tax havens, who lobbied for the trade deals that gutted the middle class. And now that the cupboards are going bare in the West, they're looking for fresh meat in the developing world. It's about sucking the Global South dry, just like they did to the American heartland. Different latitude, same attitude. The difference is that the global South know the value of the geopolitical cards they hold and won't let Western elites take complete hold of this transition of power which is also largely driven by demographics. Everyone wants to tap into these new veins of wealth - only this time the global South are in a position to set some terms more favourable to themselves. BRICS isn't some grand geopolitical revolution or plot, its just a pivot of power and future growth. Old certainties crumbling, new possibilities emerging. A pluralistic, rules-based international system that respects both national sovereignty and universal human rights, with decision-making power distributed more equitably among nations is what BRICS may promise if executed well with challenges overcome. Achieving this is challenging given the complexity of reconciling divergent national interests and values. But moving towards a world with more diffused power and checks and balances, while preserving the positive elements of the liberal international order, seems like a worthy goal.

A scholar inquired, "But is this not the way of nature, Master? Do not all creatures struggle, one against another?" "Nature knows struggle," the Master agreed, "but not hate. The lion does not loathe the gazelle, nor does the oak begrudge the vine its light. It is only man who adds to the struggle the poison of hatred, the madness of greed. We have crafted weapons that could scorch the earth, yet we squabble like children over lines drawn in sand." A young girl, her eyes bright with unshed tears, asked, "Will there never be peace, Master?" And here the Master's face shone, as if lit from within. "Peace will come, little one. Not from treaties inked by the hands of deceivers, but from a great awakening. For even now, in the hearts of men and women in every land, a truth is dawning: that we are all branches of one tree, waves of one sea. The lies that divide us — of race, of creed, of border — are being seen for what they are: shadows cast by our own fears. “As this light spreads, the merchants of war will find their arsenals rusting and their rhetoric falling on deaf ears. The makers of hatred will speak to empty halls. For a people awakened cannot be turned against their own heart, their own flesh. This is why they fear truth above all else, why they darken the air with lies.”

I'm not saying that Russia and China are angels. They're not. But the idea that they're a great global menace is exaggerated by the West, what they are is a threat to a fading Western hegemony that the West is trying to cling to. London isn't the heart of empire anymore - it’s become a chrome glass erection on the Thames functioning as a laundromat for dark money from countries they morally finger wag. Neither is New York a beacon of liberty with their statue of liberty - its become the nest of financial vultures who turned made in America into owned by Wall street. Colonial Europe used to carve up Africa like a Christmas turkey - now some of their own citizens can’t even heat up a turkey and struggle to heat their homes due to a energy crises their so called ally the US has strong armed them into to enrich their own energy industries and stick it to Russia - US foreign policy cripples Europe faster than Biden can find his words. Not to get too semantical but certain words can distort reality into something it’s not. Influence done in a healthy way is fine and natural of any power to do, but its very different from being imperial and colonial - those are both specific historical phenomena involving direct political control, economic exploitation, and cultural domination of foreign territories and peoples. China and Russia deal within their own backyards for the most part, not across the planet. For all their faults they're generally dealing with territories they have a deep historical and cultural connection to - almost like a messy bloody family squabble or a scrap with their neighbour. Contrasted to NATO and the West who are in far flung lands they have little thread of connection to except for it being a raw exercise of power in a pursuit of resources and strategic advantage. They may not ever claim those territories with a flag as in the past colonial era, but they sure do extract and cause carnage in them. They simply do it because they can, because they've got the biggest guns and the deepest pockets - its a assertion of power and dominance over people and places that have nothing to do with them ie the Global South. It's the fact that the US can sanction and seize assets, that forces other countries to want to diversify and remain robust. This isn't them trying to topple the dollar purposely and to throw the West into ruin. It’s them seeing how the West behaves and responding to safeguard their own interests. The West wishes to elevate itself by impeding the ascent of the global South. These are still developing nations with much poverty who wish to focus on security and development. In the case of China who are dependent on inputs of energy, food, materials etc they need land routes via Belt and Road as a contingency if things get ugly in the sea's. If it was the debt trap its made out to be 150 countries wouldn't be signed up to it. Last I saw, the world map read the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, not Atlanticists waters for the West to dictate and control to the point they can choke off their adversaries which they've been building up as boogeymen over decades. The US calls China a global threat whilst floating about in the South China Sea, encircling the globe with 800 military bases, sanctioning, toppling governments, and being interventionist. All the while cloaking all the above in moral righteousness. The West has become so skilled at doublethink and propaganda upon its own citizens that we can condemn other nations for the very crimes we commit on a daily basis, all without a hint of self-awareness. A good video to highlight the above.

Similar to ArcticGong and as you mentioned in the follow up comment - BRICS / the global South are rising and this is unsettling the West - but a lot of intent is given to a coordinated effort to undermine the West when it is simply incentive driven towards sovereignty. NATO is a military alliance with collective defence commitments, BRICS is a economic and political grouping aimed at fostering cooperation among member countries. Strategic interests aligning doesn't mean conspiracy to put down the West. Insisting that the global South accept behaviour from the West/US that the West/US would never accept from them is simply endorsing global subservience to the West/US. Powerful nations including the United States, don't allow foreign military threats to accumulate on their borders. Those who suggest Russia should just accept Ukraine's NATO integration or that China should endure US navy presence in the name of "freedom and democracy" essentially advocate for unchecked Western/US influence worldwide in non-Western continents - a uni-polar world, not a multi-polar one. The West chest beats democracy and diversity - the rule of the people (ie more than one) within their countries, but are against the existence of multiple (more than one) powers globally co-existing. Domestic democracy, foreign domination. It's not that the West/US aren't powers or won't be (decline doesn't mean collapse), its that they're no longer the only powers on the world stage and need to acclimate to this new reality. The West can't keep being a geopolitical titanic navigating the sea and expect other powers to remain 'contained' in dingy boats along side them, being submerged by the waves they cause with their actions.

It’s a human tendency to swing from one extreme to another, fleeing the wounds inflicted by one set of ideas to replace them with another set of ideas that promise to free you but end up harming in other ways. Both the left and the right have enough truth in their points to resonate with a sizeable proportion of their populations. The issue is that most of the time the truthful parts get diluted into half truths. Instead of brewing a full bodied blend of coffee they each serve a half and half concoction - half filled with genuine truths that resonate, the other half filled with the bitter after taste of soured milk that makes up their bias’s, prejudice’s and hidden agendas. The issue isn’t lack of truth, but kernels of truth served with additional junk.

The far right claim to have different values to the immigrants that roll in and clash with them. But two of the values among the right being capitalist economic expansion and interventionist policies actually causes the very issue they moan about. They fall prey to their own principles. The flood of immigrants isn't some natural disaster, it's the toxic runoff from the cesspool of US imperialism that turns over nations in the Middle East and Africa. Rising nationalism isn't spontaneous, it's the inevitable recoil from the shockwaves of a rampaged region creating refugees and economic migrants. The vested interests will have you believe NATO creeping eastward from and within Ukraine is about “democracy” when it’s really about cock blocking Russian energy and a EU that isn’t wholly dependent on the US - nord stream anyone?

True, they can’t just simply blame conditions. Ideology and belief definitely influence behaviour. I was just providing some nuance. What doesn’t help is that a lot of them in the countries that host them - have histories of those host countries ruining their heritage countries.

Asians, Latinos, and Eastern Europeans didn’t just waltz in and integrate smoothly either though. Most immigrant groups have been discriminated against. The Chinese were called the "Yellow Peril," Italians were "wops," Irish were "micks." People said they were dirty, lazy or criminal. Propaganda will want you to think every Muslim is one burka away from a rape spree when most sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows. Is it "Western values" when Catholic priests fiddle kids? When Hollywood big shots treat actresses like personal fuck toys? When politicians are grabbing pussies? Perhaps thats different because they wear suits instead of robes. The context of poverty, marginalization and trauma are left out of the statistics. A lot of migrants are from war-torn homes, stuck in ghetto-like conditions, denied work or dignity - and we act shocked when some snap. Europe wasn’t some rape-free paradise before the scary brown people showed up. Catholic Church scandals and charming British aristocrats and their "traditions" at boarding schools exist. Rape is about power, not passports. Crime and rape aren’t imports but depraved acts fostered in a Petri dish of horrid conditions.

Maybe it's all a cosmic joke. Maybe this "self" we're so proud of is just a brain fart, free will's a bedtime story, and we're all just meat puppets jerking to the tunes of our DNA. This mess isn't a plan or conspiracy, it's just the universe taking a massive, uncontrolled shit. Or we're like those first fish dragging their sorry asses onto land. New legs, can't walk without stumbling. Our brains too big for our skulls. We fall for every line of propaganda because we haven't figured out the cognitive wings evolution or God has given us. Perhaps one day, we'll shed the shadows from our egos, and trying to sell us war will be like trying to sell a bitcoin to the Amish. Or, maybe the universe is just one big eye, slowly opening. Life is its first blink, humans are its first blurry thoughts. Science is IT rubbing the sleep out, meditation is IT watching its own mind churn, and the internet? That's IT mapping its own nervous system on a neural net. All the chaos? Just the pain of cosmic puberty. The eye's just not awakened yet but we”ll get there.

@Danioover9000 @Karmadhi Gotta be partially trolling but ya never know lol. Democracy - human rights - self defence. These are just some of the lubed up words used to fuck our good conscience into accepting injustice - but we aren’t dumb or numb to the propaganda. Twisting the words of a sky daddy to carve up chunks of Mother Earth for people to fight over? Probably not how the Gods envisioned their divine inheritance being handled by humanity. This thread gets lively on the weekends 😂

True, the key here is balance and health. Religious fundamentalists/nationalists and the liberal left both stifle humanity. The former does so through extreme exclusion while the latter does so through extreme inclusion. Liberals and stage greens recognise the soul of each human compared to stage blue nationalists but their shadow is utopianism- that inherent differences exist with inherent inequalities they’d like to equalise but that they go about equalising in a tyrannical or dysfunctional way.

Stage blue ethnocentrics see themselves as divine architects of a better world, but they’re actually erecting one built on exclusion. Anyone who doesn’t fit into their molds of caste, color, or creed is left out. They bask in a sense of superiority over stage orange because they align themselves with something “transcendental” rather than the supposedly trivial material world. Yet, they’ve haven’t scratched beyond the surface of their own tribe and can’t grasp the essence of their scriptures beyond a literalist reading. Stage blue thinks they’re God-conscious, but they’re merely conscious of the human-made commandments they’ve projected onto a divine reality. They sense an intuition of God consciousness but can’t fully articulate or encapsulate its truth without concocting half-truths laced with falsehoods. The question for the future isn’t whether one believes in God, but how they believe in God. Is God an external entity, humanized to cope with reality’s immensity, imposed upon the world with commandments from a subconscious King archetype? Or is God an essence infused within reality, permeating all and manifesting in every form, yet not external to any form, big or small? Is God witnessed as an inherent quality of the universe rather than a judge from afar?

This US backed raid which Israel isn't capable of alone - killed 3 hostages including a US citizen. This isn't just Middle East policy gone wrong. The US bankrolls, arms and shields Israel from every UN resolution and ICC investigation because a colonial outpost is the perfect watchdog instigator for their oil-soaked golf course in the Middle East. Nothing keeps the war machine going like a forever conflict and a never-ending list of enemies to create and bomb. What we are seeing is the unholy union between America's cult of Darwinian capitalism and Israel's delusion of divine birthright. Divine selection weds Darwinian selection and their offspring is the monster the world see's devouring Gaza. Gaza isn't just a war (if you can call it that) but a warning. It's the endgame of an ideology that says some people - whether chosen by markets or mythical sky-daddies - have the right to grind others into dust. Gaza, Ukraine, Yemen, the drowned refugees in the Med - all just collateral damage in a quest for a world where only the fittest survive - fit by meritocracy/corporatocracy or fit because God says so. A ethos of Divine selection from God (Israel) combined and backed by a ethics of Darwinian selection (US) creates this symbiosis of savagery thats needs tending to.The people using the power of the internet and social media shred their propaganda. Every child's scream echoes louder than their myths. The people say no to ethnic cleansing and land grabbing justified by wall street balance sheets and biblical verses.

Like @Karmadhi said, we are beyond who started it, its about who is currently going about it in such a way that perpetuates suffering and spits in the face of international law and human decency. If we really wanted we could excuse all our behaviours by saying God started this whole thing called existence filled with love and war - but thats immature deflection of responsibility. We can naturally expect more from a state than a stateless people as a state is part of a larger interconnected body of politics, trade and norms they are beholden to. To add to @lina's brilliant comment ''it's Israel who cornered Palestinians into a situation in which the only type of resistance or armed forces they get is represented by small groups; whom due to their incapability, resort to guerilla warfare tactics.'' Israel denies Palestinians a state then expects them to behave in accordance to the standards of having one. Usually it takes another person to expose anthers bias, but with Zionists given a platform to air their own thoughts they usually do it themselves. What we are seeing is the unholy union between America's cult of Darwinian capitalism and Israel's delusion of divine birthright. Divine selection marries Darwinian selection. A ethos of Divine selection from God (Israel) combined and backed by a ethics of Darwinian selection (US) results in the offspring of the frankenstein abomination we witness in Gaza. Wall Street's sharks bless Tel Aviv's bombs. "Only the strong survive," growls the West. "God chose us to thrive," howls Israel's right. Ethnic cleansing and land grabbing justified by balance sheets and biblical verses. Latest updates show that this US backed raid which Israel isn't capable of alone - killed 3 hostages including 1 US citizen. Sad.

Enlightenment takes you beyond earthly limits where you no longer exist, love grounds you blissfully within earthly limits where you do. Enlightenment is love made silent in stillness, love is enlightenment moved to the dance of sound. Enlightenment is becoming the light beyond duality, love is living with the light whilst in duality. Whilst love embodies light to radiate it, enlightenment goes beyond the body and steps into the light to become that radiance itself. Love is the path where there is a dancer, enlightenment is the destination where the dancer no longer exists. Love uses the language of duality to point to the truth of non-duality, where one is all and all is one. Love is the poetic expression of enlightenments beauty. Love wears the crown, enlightenment shines as the jewel. Loveeee is your username where a user exists, enlightenment is where no user exists at all. Now for a beautiful piece on love. On Love You must come to the profound recognition that the bones which scaffold your form, and the flesh which drapes it, are not exclusively yours. They are a congregation of contributions from countless entities that have danced in the earth and sky’s alchemy, and to this cosmic crucible, you will one day return. The light that dances in your eyes is not yours alone to claim — it is the shared luminescence of all life. Without the symphony of this collective glow, what visions could your eyes paint? Absent this universal light, you would stand enveloped in the deepest of voids. The breath that swells your chest with life does not whisper through you in isolation. Every being that has drawn breath into their lungs, that does so now, breathes in harmony with you. Is it not the breath of the primordial life that still circulates within your being? Can you not sense the ancient pulse of existence that beats a steady rhythm within your heart? Your thoughts are not solitary wanderers in the wilderness of cognition. They are a part of the grand confluence of shared awareness, where the consciousness of all converges and mingles. Your dreams, too, are stitched from the ethereal fabric that the cosmos itself dreams into being.

The first sentence could easily describe Gaza, just on a larger scale and through a different mechanism. The second sentence oversimplifies their condition. These tents aren’t glamping luxury retreats - they lack even the necessities like food water medicine. You can understand that death isn’t the only tragedy but so is psychological suffering as in the case of Israeli hostages - this same reasoning can be applied to Gazans who are wounded, had loved ones die, been told to move around like sheep to safe zones which aren’t always safe. They are hungry, can’t access medical care and forced to get amputations without anaesthesia. They don’t know whether they’ll wake up in heaven the next morning or end up cleansed to the Sinai desert never to return to homes that are now rubble. Both suffer from power games being played that crush innocents lives in body and soul.

Any heart that hasn't fully been propagandised to dehumanize and value one life over another would feel bittersweet at the return of the hostages - the relief of a life returned to its home is sweet, the cost it took to get there bitter. A total of 7 hostages have been returned in over 7 months of destruction, death and displacement of over 1.5 million Gazans - the joy of having less than 1 hostage a month being returned is clouded by the cost to life, dignity and hope of 2 million Gazans. The tragic irony is that those hostages could have tasted freedom much sooner if the government that claims to prioritise their return accepted earlier permanent ceasefire deals - they instead only insisted on temporary ones so they could regroup, rearm and continue destroying Gaza in pursuit of Hamas. The Israeli state would rather have Palestinians submit to them than demand dignity and rights by standing up to occupation.They would rather use the hostages to shield themselves from criticism to go easy on Gaza, prolong their political career and cleanse the strip to make way for a greater Israel some amongst them dream of. Western media will zoom in on tearful reunions while blurring out the kids graves in Gaza. They'll interview hostage families but never the Palestinian father dangling his headless child. They manufacture consent for their support of Israel by minimising the victims created by the Israeli states actions. The empires eternal con is to parade small mercies to hide vast cruelties. They'll wave a flag of compassion over one life saved, while using it to shroud the mountains of bodies they've made. If the far right within Israel get what they want which is a settled Gaza, when they boast themselves to be a developed nation and to look at their beach resorts - we'll remember it was built upon the bones of Palestinians. Their development will just be a fancy tombstone for a people they've tried to erase.

Thanks man, likewise you share good up to date information.

True, defending aggression with hypotheticals of worse aggressions just seems to lack social intelligence of how they come across + a minimisation of the suffering the current aggression is causing. Destiny seems to imply that the current level of aggression is justified because it hasn’t yet reached the most extreme level of aggressions ie Nuke.

@Inliytened1 Two pages back I commented this regarding Jewish history of persecution.

Fine line between making a judgment and observation. Trauma doesn’t grant anyone a pass to inflict more trauma. Past trauma should become a lesson in empathy rather than an excuse for brutality. Well done to Israel for not nuking Gaza - the world is grateful they only just dropped a tonnage of bombs larger than Dresden and Hiroshima combined on a strip of land where the majority are women and children which by default mean innocent. You can’t assure someone you don’t know of what they have or haven’t been through. But I can assure you that attempts at justifying the actions of Israel by comparing them to a more extreme scenario of using a nuke doesn’t come across well. This only shows how successful Zionist propaganda is at echo chambering those within it - that things they think are normal to say aren’t - and that they only may realise this when their viewpoints come into contact with the outside world which pushes back on it.

If this is Israel going conducting a war of defence I wouldn’t want to know what a war of offence looks like - probably like using a flamethrower to light a candle.

@Twentyfirst You asked about why they were hated in the past so gave some reasons simply related to economic incentives driven by religious differences. If you know other reasons please list them. Of course past traumas shouldn’t be weaponised to justify present day injustice and the ugly manifestation of Zionism. Perhaps that’s what you get when you marry unhealed trauma and a level of power that corrupts. Israel has become a reflection of the injustice its founders once fled. A group who were once marginalised now marginalise another to the coast of Gaza with no where left to go except a barren Sinai desert.

The US House of Representatives just passed a bill to sanction ICC officials: the diplomatic equivalent of a toddler throwing a tantrum because the adults are trying to serve justice, that may hold the toddler accountable. Ironic that the self-proclaimed global gladiator of justice who architected the international order is now lashing out at the very court that’s job is to deliver justice and order. The American eagle once soaring high is now flapping its wings under a burden of hypocrisy that erodes its global standing - and all for a foreign state that gives barely any thanks for it.